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Monday, November 3, 2014

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Review

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

My
first DSLR was the Canon 450D with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens.
Which was adequate to learn on. As my photography progressed I upgraded to a
Canon 50D and a Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens. The 17-85mm is a good
lens, but after I got the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L, I found that it wasn't in the
same league as the L lens, so I wanted a wide angle zoom that could match it.

While
researching and looking for a replacement, this is the criteria I used:

1.
A lens which could match the 70-200 in image quality.

2. A practical zoom range to use as a walkabout lens.

3. Constant F2.8 max aperture. I do a lot of flash photography, so needing to
change flash settings every time I changed the zoom was a nuisance.

Cons:

Cheap plastic construction.

Not well sealed.

Some Chromatic Aberration at 17mm.

Lens hood not included.

Front of lens extends inward and outward when zooming in and out.

Expensive.

The
Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM is Canon's most expensive EF-S mount midrange zoom
and one of the best general purpose lenses available. Since it is an EF-S
mount, it only works on crop frame cameras, such as the Canon T5i, 70D, and
7D. On a crop-frame camera (1.6x crop factor) the 17–55mm focal length is
equivalent to a 28–89mm lens on a full-frame camera.

It
has a fast, fixed f/2.8 aperture, great image quality, three-stop Image
Stabilization, a USM motor for smooth and quiet and fast auto-focusing, and a useful
focal length range.

Focusing

The
17-55mm focus is excellent. Auto-focusing speed is almost instantaneous when
mounted on my Canon 7D due to the USM motor. The lens doesn't spend too much
time hunting for focus, except in really dark environments. It is also
incredibly quiet when focusing. I did have some issues with back-focusing at
first, but that is relatively common and not a problem specific to this lens.

A
great feature of USM lenses like this is that you can use manual focus and at
any time without switching to MF.

The
77mm filter thread is on a non-rotating front element, so it doesn't rotate on focus
or focal length changes, which is great for when you are using polarizers or
graduated ND filters.

Bokeh

Wide
open, the 17-55 produces very pleasing bokeh. It has an iris diaphragm with a
7-blade aperture barrel which helps produce the a great background blur even
when stopped down. Note that since this is a wide-angle lens, you need to be close
to your subject to create a good blurred background.

Chromatic Aberration

The
lens has quite severe chromatic aberration at its widest focal length of 17mm,
but decreases at longer focal lengths. There is still a mild degree of CA from
28mm to 55mm, but it is not too bad. The CA is most apparent in the edges and
corners of the frame. Overall, it is much better than my previous Canon 17-85mm
IS lens.

Vignetting

Wide
aperture, wide angle lens are generally prone to vignetting. The 17-55 does
have vignetting, but it is acceptable and easily fixed in Lightroom.

Construction Quality

The
exterior is made mainly of plastic with a metal mount and both plastic and
metal internals. It's a solid-feeling, quality lens, but this is the one thing
about it that isn't quite the same as Canon's L glass. Having had another three
EF-S lenses which were all small, lightweight, and rather cheap feeling, the
size, weight, and overall solid feeling of the 17-55 was quite surprising.

Sharpness

The
17-55 is pretty sharp wide open and gets incredibly sharp once stopped down to
f/4 and beyond.

IS (Image Stabilization)

The
IS is wonderful. It allows me to get sharp images at two stops lower than I
usually could.

The
image stabilizer provides an equivalent effect of a 3 f-stops gain in shutter
speed for hand-held photography (at cost of slower shutter speeds). The IS
mechanism can detect the lack of motion so it can remain activated on a tripod.

Zoom Ring Scale

The
zoom range is reasonably well distributed. The wide end is much easier to use
than the very-cramped-together wide end of the Canon 17-85mm IS. This is
important: this cramping is the biggest reason I dislike the 17-85mm IS.

Zoom Creep

My
pet hate with this lens is the zoom creep. It happens often at angles over 45
degrees, which becomes a hassle.

Constant Aperture

My
favorite feature is the fixed fast f/2.8 aperture means that the widest
aperture,f/2.8 , can be used throughout the entire focal length range, so exposure
settings do not change when zooming. F/2.8 is fast enough to stop most action.

Competition

The
17–55mm focal length is probably the most useful range for a general purpose
lens. It can be used for everything from landscapes to portraits. There are
many other lenses that include this focal length. The most common are:

The
closest in focal length is the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, the standard Rebel
series kit lens. These two should not be confused. They are completely
different lenses. I had an 18-55 that came with my first camera, the Canon
450D. The 18-55 is OK for a starter lens, but it doesn't come close to the construction
and optical quality of the 17-55. It also lacks the IS and USM features.

A
step up from the 18-55 is the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. I owned one
for a few years and it wasn't a bad lens. It has a better build, image quality,
and features (USM and IS) than the 18-55. When I decided I wanted to get a
better quality lens, I went for the 17-55, which gave me even better image
quality, a fixed f/2.8 aperture, and L-Series grade UD (Ultra-Low Dispersion
glass) lens elements. The extra weight and reduced focal range were definitely
a worthy tradeoff for the improved image quality and sharpness, fast (and
constant) aperture, and lower barrel distortion.

The
EF-S 17-55m f/2.8 USM IS is on par with L series lenses in many ways. The main
differences are the build quality and the lack of weather sealing (although I
have shot with this lens in typhoons without any hassles.)

I highly recommend the 17-55.It has
excellent features, specs, and image quality, that will be suitable for both amateurs
and professionals. This is the lens I shoot the most with on my crop sensor
Canon 7D.